Despite all that bile, the dilemmas portrayed in Shaw's 1906 play might inform some thinking about how we distribute decontamination equipment and intensive-care teams; how we allocate protective gear, bio-containment facilities, isolation rooms, and life-saving vaccines.

To a patient, approving or disapproving coverage of health care based on a comparison of costs against benefits is rationing, in all that word's ugliest meanings. But to everyone suffering from the excessive cost of health care, this sort of decision making is rational.